Glutenfree in Oslo

Happily it is getting easier and easier to be glutenfree in Norway. Nearly 10 years ago it was exceptionally hard to get hold of products or to eat out with options, but now all supermarkets have gluten and dairy free products and a whole heap of restaurants and cafes have also cottened on and are serving a few glutenfree things if you ask, especially glutenfree pizza. There is a list of some of the places in Oslo here, one of my favourites being Villa Paradiso in Grunnerløkka.


There is a wonderful Gluten free bakery/cafe called Bakefri in the city centre which has a whole heap of amazing gluten free breads, rolls, quiches, cakes and more. You can find it at Kirkegata 15, 0153 Oslo and they now also supply the bakery Baker Hansen with two types of glutenfree bread, two types of glutenfree rolls and glutenfree apple muffins. You can also order Gluten free bread from several places in Oslo including Godt Brød in Grunnerløkka and Baker Brun who also now have a whole range of gluten free breads- (Uten Gluten Olaf Ryesplass 3, entrance Markveien 0554 Oslo Tuesday 13.00 til 19.00 and Manglerud centre Plogveien 6 0679 Oslo Tuesday 14.00 til 20.00. They have now opened the old bakery behind the shop that just bakes glutenfree bread ) you can take a look at their facebook page here. And finally there is a Norwegian Coeliac Association for Oslo and Akershus and a great Gluten free site with information about Gluten free things around Norway.

The Grinning Depression

Being a mum is intensely rewarding, immensely fulfilling and a completely joyful love affair, just being completely in the moment with your children and sharing the giggles and the journey, i would not change it for anything. But at the same time it can be very lonely, can strip you bare, stretch you beyond anything you can imagine and can be unrelenting in its intensity of need. Reading the article "A Mother's Call to Healing" by Marcy Axness she writes so brilliantly about the depression that can follow the birth of your baby but also how "the healing call of mothering has carved out of me my true Self, who daily, gloriously, feels life against her soul."

Laughter

I totally love this image, so cute. 

Eco Hope

Polly Catchpole, the founder of Polly Hope, in her garden in south London. 

For beauty, inspiration and 100% ecological textiles take a gander at Polly Hope, a company founded by British designer Polly Catchpole. I absolutely love her designs and would really like to have many of them in our house, and the fact that they are also ecological is a massive bonus. Her eco friendly collection includes interior textiles, cushions, lamp shades, upholstered chairs and illustrations and you can see her latest fabrics- "contemporary fabrics for eco interiors" here!Polly Hope fabrics are made of 100 per cent organic materials, hand-printed with natural dyes and made in a family-run factory called Aura Herbal Wear in India. These furnishing fabrics therefore value the environment and those who manufacture them, ensuring fair trade standards and a chemical free work place to all those involved. She's just had an article printed about her business in the Telegraph newspaper which is super cool. Do take at look at some of her designs below and on Polly Hope's website, they are incredibly beautiful and i think her company is very inspiring. She has a blog which you can see here and you can also follow her on Twitter @PollyHopeLive. 

Good Friends

 Cheesy but true. Thank you to all those friends who are always there for me X

No words

Commemorative Street Art

"Punks not dead" 

This cool street art by stencil artist Martin Whatson was part of the T&J Art Walk that visited Oslo this august. Martin joined some of the world’s leading contemporary street artists who came to show their support for Human Rights Watch and to honour the victims of the terror of July 22. They created memorial murals that decorated the facades of nine central buildings in the city covering more than 600 square meters with high quality art for everyone to enjoy. "The team of geezers include names such as Logan Hicks, D*Face, The London Police, Faile, Will Barras,Shepard Fairey, Fenx, Galo and Martin Whatson".See the video here or more here on the T&J blog or have a walk around town to see it for yourself!

Without knowing about the Art Walk in Oslo i stumbled on this piece of street art in Grønland, a sad reminder of what happened here in July.

all the more reason to look at things from this perspective 

"Lost Hope" Martin Whatson, part of the august 2011 Art Walk